The invention concerns specifically painting line for metal objects which are provided with a base for engaging objects at a space from one another on said base, and members for spreading paint on the objects attached to said base and, if needed, heating means for fixing the paint on the objects prior to detaching same from said base.
A wide variety of coatings are used nowadays which already have been painted or pretreated so that they need not be painted after being mounted. In that case, also the coating screws or nails used for said mounting have to be pre-painted. Painting such small objects provided with small narrow tips and even pointed tips, possibly provided with a washer, so that the paint can be spread and affixed uniformly on the heads and washers of said objects has turned out to be inconvenient. In order to succeed in said operation, said objects have to be hold at the narrow end during the painting and fixing of the paint.
It is known in the art to paint such coating screws and nails by pushing their tip into an aperture disc or a net, whereafter paint is spread on the coating screws and nails affixed to said aperture disc or net, which after the paint has dried are detached from the base. The affixing and detaching have however to be done as handwork which is costly and time consuming.
Endeavors have been made to automate the painting of coating screws and nails by using groove conveyors into the grooves of which the tips of the coating screws and nails enter so that said head-provided metal objects can be painted when they move past the painting nozzles. The efficiency of said painting lines employing the above-mentioned groove conveyors has however been very low and they frequently encounter operating disturbances because the grooves are filled with paint, after which the transporting capacity of the groove conveyors is disturbed. Keeping said groove conveyors clean has proved highly problematic. In addition, the affixing and detaching of the head-provided metal objects is difficult to automate.
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks mentioned above and to provide a painting line for various metal objects, said line having a high, even over 80%, efficiency and being easy to keep clean.
The main characteristic features of the invention become obvious in the accompanying claims.